Despite the urgency and keenness shown by the Centre to provide for 27 per cent reservations in higher educational institutions from this year, the Supreme Court today refused to pass any immediate order to vacate the stay on implementing the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. It posted the plea for vacation of stay for consideration to July 31.

As the anti-quota petitioners argued that the present application filed by the Centre is just reiteration of what was filed earlier, which the two-judge Bench had already rejected, the Solicitor General G E Vahanvati pressed hard for vacation of the March 29 stay. “It is nothing but a review of the review,” countered M L Lahoty, senior advocate appearing for Youth for Equality, one of the petitioners that have challenged the constitutional validity of the Act.

Senior advocate Rajiv Dhavan said a similar application with identical grounds was even filed earlier and already stands rejected. “By such an application, the Union of India is actually inviting a three-judge Bench to sit in an appeal against an order of the two-judge Bench,” Dhavan submitted as he asserted that matter already stands referred to a Constitutional Bench, so this application must not be entertained.

Accepting the plea raised by anti-quota petitioners, the Bench gave them two weeks to furnish their replies on the application while posting the matter for July 31.

Meanwhile, the Court will also issue a direction next week on the issue of referring the matter to the Constitution Bench as was earlier referred by the Bench presided by Justice Arijit Pasayat while dismissing a review of the stay.

... contd.